I'll say it again. This is the best submarine movie that will ever be made.
It's not because of the setting, its unique perspective or even its staggering amount of technical accuracy.
It takes this title because of the atmosphere it constructs.
No other submarine movie builds the feeling of a damp, smelly and claustrophobic machine like this movie does. This is a pure understatement.
This movie is so well shot, so well detailed, so well paced and so complete of an experience that you will immerse yourself in the environment. You are there. You aren't distracted by dozens of familiar actors faces. If you don't speak German, the correct language of the crew being spoken will add another layer of immersion instead of having to grit your teeth against hokey accents.
Often films leave you feeling that outside of the periphery of the camera lens, there's a studio. This movie, like so few other films give you a sense that the rest of the Second World War is happening even where the camera isn't pointed.
This movie, unlike any other submarine movie has an almost obsessive level of technical accuracy. Nothing looks like a set. This is the interior of a Type VIIc U-boat. Nothing looks out of place, nothing looks fake. Bulkheads look cold, heavy and coated in both grime and moisture. Dials and lightbulbs seem to be full of condensation. The air doesn't look to be filled with movie smoke. It looks thick with the smell of grease, sweat, oil, paint, diesel fuel. The blankets and clothes look constantly damp. The actors, pasty and filthy like real sailors kept out the the sun for months at a time.
This movie was created in an era before CGI. As such it relies heavily on well detailed and painstakingly created miniatures to recreate the presence of ships long scrapped or sunk. They have held up against the test of time and still look convincing to this day. You'd be hard pressed to tell the 36 foot miniature model of the boat from the two 18 foot models used in the making of the film.
Now the meat and potatoes. The crew. A first time viewer of the movie will be acutely aware that these Kriegsmarine sailors are the enemy. They are the bad guys. These are the guys everybody's grandfather punched in the face on Omaha Beach, right? Who can blame anyone for thinking this at first. When we first meet the crew, they're clean shaven, wearing their dress uniforms and tearing up occupied France on leave in drunken celebration. But, as the film progresses, you almost lose track of the time period. Of the larger war. What were once a sea of young, idealistic faces eager for action are now sprouting unkempt beards. The service uniforms become slowly replaced with the more comfortable civilian attire from deeper in the sea bags. Neckties give way to what look like scarves and hats made by family members. You don't get backstory (in the Directors Cut that is) on any of the characters. Each is introduced with little or no explanation. You only get to glean a few details here and there as the day to day conversations and duties aboard the boat are depicted in unrelenting detail.
The end result is that like the main character, Werner, you meet the crew and learn the life aboard this submarine through his eyes, and by the end of the movie each face in the crew is now a familiar one. Nobody in this movie is truly an "extra". I must have watched this movie over 30 times in my life and each viewing, I notice a new detail in the background. A sailor trying not to fall out of his bunk in a raging storm can be seen clutching what looks like a scratch built model of the submarine itself fashioned from food cans, was the latest thing I noticed. You watch these guys suffer the monotony of the day to day routine while fruitlessly hunting for convoys in good weather, then accompany them through the hellish experience of a depth charge attack, then another. You follow good men to the breaking point, and watch others distinguish themselves as a member of the team. Nobody looks clueless in the background. Everybody is busy. Be it monitoring the dials and gauges of their post, or checking the batteries in emergency lamps prior to action. Nobody is "arbitrarily turning knobs trying to make it look like they are doing something" right down to the officer inputting data called down from the bridge into the perfectly recreated TVhRe. S3 Torpedo Data Computer accurately inputting the estimated range to the target, before adjusting the maximum torpedo run distance (in hectometers...) and responding with having a "firing solution" as the error lamp can be seen turning off. It is...a wholly immersive experience.
You find yourself forgetting who they fight for, or why. You get absorbed in the comraderie, the teamwork and the sheer effort they put into repairing the sub. This isn't U-571 where you tighten the nut on a conn rod cap and say "okay chief give her a go", this is the chief of the boat and two other guys tangled up under one of the diesels literally pulling main bearing caps off to change the main bearings up to their knees in oily seawater. They look like they know what they are doing. You feel like you are watching the real guys do the real thing. I cannot express how utterly reverent this movie is to the history it portrays.
If you haven't seen this yet, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and turn the lights off, get comfortable and watch this movie with HEADPHONES on. You hear water rushing past the hull. You hear the electic motors change speed. The subtle music cues often lost in dialogue can be heard in full. The depth charge explosions are ear splitting. The silence being rent by the sound of a bursting bolt is heart-stopping.
Sit down, buckle up and enjoy. This is the best submarine movie that will ever be made.
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One of the best submarine movies of all time!!!
Ah, Das Boot (the boat), I love this movie why, why, you ask? Let's begin at the beginning. Das Boot was a German film made by Bavaria Films released in America in February of 1982. It had a fourteen million dollar budget and was directed by Wolfgang Petersen. The movie is based on the book written by Lothar-Gunther Bucheim who was a war correspondent during World War II. Lothar was attached to a u-boat crew and found out the hard way just what life was like in the boat. I gotta say Petersen did this movie right. From the sets to the models to the look of the actors it all looks like it came from WWII. The director's cut is a little longer than the original at 208 minutes. The commentary on the director's cut is from sixteen years after the original cut and is done primarily by Wolfgang Petersen (the director), Jurgen Prochnow (plays the u-boat captain) and Ortwin Freyermuth (the director's cut producer). The movie opens with some information about the u-boat fleet and the battle over control of the Atlantic that started fantastically for the Germans but now is changing in favor of the American and European forces. We switch to a murky green background and then you see the bow of the u-boat begin to appear slowly, you hear the sonar pinging in the background. We then move to the u-boat in the pens at La Rochelle France where the crew is assembled and awaiting their captain and thus begins one of the best submarine movies. The u-boat set in La Rochelle wasn't a set, it is an actual u-boat pen built in the late thirties/early forties when Germany occupied France (just another reason why this is one of the best u-boat movies) the walls are six meter thick concrete, one of the bays was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Speaking of u-boats in the movie, one was a full size model built from original u-boat plans and was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other shots of the sub at sea were of an eleven meter miniature with a guy inside driving it, Petersen said the driver got rather seasick at times. Originally, Bavaria Films didn't feel they had the resources to make the movie right so they went to hollywood to get it made. Robert Redford and Paul Newman were both considered to play the u-boat captain but there were big arguments with Bucheim about how the story was being portrayed because hollywood wanted to put an American spin on it, it eventually was shot using a German cast and in German language with subtitles. Later after its popularity soared it was overdubbed in English (by the original actors) some years later. There was also a six hour miniseries version for television made. Basically the movie was shot mostly in the closed set of the sub with the camera following the actors through the sub to give you the claustrophobic feeling of forty eight people living in a metal tube that's twelve feet in diameter by three hundred feet long. No one was taking showers or washing clothes on a regular basis and you had the lovely smell of diesel fuel wafting through the boat thanks to the twin diesel engines that powered the boat on top of the water. It's not a documentary though, it's a drama. Bucheim wasn't impressed with Peterson's film interpretation of his book, he felt Peterson had overdramatized it saying he made an "action flick" out of it. At one point the boat comes across a convoy of ships and torpedos a couple, everybody is happy. At another point they are getting the hell depth charged out of them when one of the most experienced crew members Johann the engine room lead man freaks out and tries to leave the ship (while it's under water...). The real captain of the U-96 (the number of the U-boat in the movie) survived the war and was on the set of the movie during the making of to answer the casts questions. Jurgen was able to get a lot of tips about how he should play the part of captain. All in all I don't think you'll find a better movie that depicts life on a WWII submarine. The blu-ray version of this movie is crisp and clean, the director commentary is the only special feature on it except for subtitles and several language choices. If you want to experience the real thing for yourself, visit the U-505 on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry one of the worlds best (IF NOT THE BEST!!!) static displays of a WW2 u-boat. In the commentary Petersen refers to the 505 in "cheecago" (as he pronounced Chicago with his accent), he used it as a guide for making the interior sets of the movie, the U-505 is one of two remaining type IXC boats from that era left. The S&I museum in Chicago built a thirty five million dollar enclosure for the 505 that's a huge improvement from when it was outside. You can walk around the outside, see the torpedos and tour the inside of the boat and yes the tour guides (at least the one I had) have seen Das Boot.
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